Project Background

We have long admired the role that entrepreneurs play in creating new firms and new industries. Innovative products and services and new ways of doing business are essential to creating jobs, economic growth, higher productivity, and rising standards of living. In the last several decades, organizations such as Ashoka have worked to support and call attention to social entrepreneurs – individuals who are passionate about tackling large-scale societal challenges in innovative and transformational ways.

Ashoka and UC Berkeley are collaborating to develop a “digital library” for social entrepreneurship. This library will consist initially of interviews of some of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs, but will expand over time to include other types of content, such as multimedia tutorials and documentaries that will give social entrepreneurs the skills they need to be successful. After the completion of this pilot phase, we also envision recruiting additional partners, such as other universities.

Goals of the digital library

 Vision : The decentralized and participatory production of high-quality digital media that inspires and empowers individuals to become effective social entrepreneurs and active citizens.

The goals of the digital library are to:

• Inspire more people (particularly young people) to become social entrepreneurs, change-makers, and active citizens.

• Capture and share some of the experiences and practical insights of leading social entrepreneurs.

• Create material that can be used by the growing number of classes and educational programs in social entrepreneurship, and will motivate students to engage in service-learning and other forms of civic engagement beyond the classroom.

• Increase public awareness of the key role that social entrepreneurs play in improving education, expanding access to healthcare, reducing poverty, fighting corruption, and promoting sustainable development.

• Use new technologies to ensure widespread dissemination and decentralized production of digital media related to social entrepreneurship.